OCEANSIDE — A group of former Tri-City Medical Center executives has sued the public health district that operates the hospital and four of its board members for more than $7 million, claiming the administrators were wrongly fired and defamed.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Vista Superior Court, is the latest salvo in a battle that started Dec. 18 when a newly elected majority of the Tri-City Healthcare District placed nine administrators on leave and launched an investigation into hospital finances and operations...

The other executives received no severance pay; board members said those executives were fired for reasons allowed under their employment contracts.

The suit targets the district and the four board members who made up the new voting majority that orchestrated the dismissals: Kathleen Sterling, RoseMarie Reno, Charlene Anderson and George Coulter. Larry Anderson, the district's current administrator, also is listed as a defendant...

San Diego attorney Tom Tosdal, who represents Sterling, said his client and the other board members are being targeted because critics perceive them as being more friendly to unions representing hospital workers.

All four of the board members received campaign contributions from the unions during their election campaigns last fall.

“I think this is more of a continuation of the labor union battles,” Tosdal said...

The Tri-City Medical Center board has spent several hours in a series of closed-session meetings over the last three weeks, but has released no new information on the fate of eight hospital administrators who have spent the past three months on paid administrative leave.

...Devaney said her clients have been "obsessive" about gleaning whatever information they can, either through reports in the press or by keeping their ears to the ground, about the investigation.

She said few have spent much time relaxing during their three-month involuntary hiatus.

"They've been making their own public records requests," Devaney said. "They've all been in the hospital in twos and threes looking at records."...